During the holidays, people love to snuggle up, get warm and cozy, and get into the spirit of the end of the year, which puts people in that togetherness mood, even with the studios, and recently Netflix, giving audiences an outpouring of Christmas movies to chew through. Some films use the holiday setting and twist an audience's expectations to deliver an experience opposite of its environment. Directors and writers like Shane Black or Joe Dante have had their fair share. But there are plenty of films, from horror, comedy, and action, that take the spirit of giving and twist it. These are alternative and unconventional films if you’re in the mood for the holidays, but want something a little dirtier and different.
8 Reindeer Games
John Frankenheimer’s veteran know-how behind the camera as one of the first modern action directors elevates Reindeer Games' nonsensical heist script to a fun, holiday-adjacent thrill ride. Ben Affleck plays a recently released convict, who decides to steal his former cellmate's identity because he has a chance with the beautiful and still relatively new Charlize Theron. But once he realizes he's in with a sinister Gary Sinise, the film goes to hell. It's deliriously fun, but the plot-hole-laden script, the snowy backdrop, and the holiday spirit intertwined with the setting make Reindeer Games a hell of a good time.
7 The Long Kiss Goodnight
Catching badass heroine Geena Davis at the height of her powers as Charly Baltimore and a Samuel L. Jackson fresh off Pulp Fiction as Mitch Hennesey — two names only Shane Black as the foul-mouthed pen could conjure — The Long Kiss Goodnight is one of the more unquiet bizarre action films of the 1990s. With an over-the-top penchant for violence, directed by Renny Harlin, Davis gets into an accident during her quaint family life to awaken her subconscious to the fact she's a super agent. The film goes on a wild ride of stunt work and pyrotechnics to the White House, all as the beating fervor of the holidays thrums in the background, adding a nice sheet of snow for texture to the violence.
6 Black Christmas
A horror film that lives under the artificial neon glow of Christmas lights and decor, Black Christmas is a slasher film that terrorizes the classic teen victims of horror films and gives the genre a new feel because of the specificity of its calendar holiday. While director Bob Clark — his other famous Christmas movie, A Christmas Story — isn't a genre staple, he knew the exact kind of aesthetic and technical approach to create the eerie sensation laden in the film's compositions. The director constantly cross-cuts, uses split diopter shots, and dramatic use of POV — in short, creating a slasher holiday classic.
5 Batman Returns
Tim Burton’s first two Batman films remain because the auteur got to drive the film with his weirdly sinister vision intact. Making the sequel weirder, more expansive, and fixated with a slick, holiday glow to juxtapose the dark criminal underworld of Gotham, Batman Returns is as good as a superhero-holiday crossover there is. With Michael Keaton returning as the titular hero, Christopher Walken, Danny DeVito, and Michelle Pfeiffer with her iconic turn as Catwoman, Burton’s film is a memorable tour around a never-snowier Gotham. As DeVito’s Penguin relates in the snow, Batman comes to the rescue.
4 Gremlins
Joe Dante’s looney toon ambitions and love of creating creatures, critters, and mayhem out of childlike lunacy came to fruition with his iconic creation, Gremlins. Set against the suburban backdrop of 1980s America, Dante came up with an idea to turn Christmas into a small-town nightmare. With the hilariously cuddly and weird Gizmo spawning an offset of tiny gremlins, the Spielberg touch can be felt in the adventure while Dante punctuates the film with his off-the-wall set-pieces, like the wild bar sequence. All with the feeling of togetherness during Christmas that you can feel Dante attempting to rip apart.
3 Eyes Wide Shut
During a brief stint of time when Cruise still took cracks at his star power veneer, Eyes Wide Shut is a film that always pops up in conversation during the holidays. The film is a surreal drift into the shadows of a secret society and also a complex distillation of a marriage in crisis, where Cruise memorably wanders the dimly lit streets of New York. As Cruise memorably slides into the underbelly of a world disassociated from the comfort of his life.
2 Carol
In a film where seemingly every shot matters, Todd Haynes strings together a beautiful succession of fades, dissolves, and small encounters to weave the fragility of a love hidden in the shadows. Starring Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara as secret lovers destined for heartache, Haynes paints their romance in a cold hue, distilled by the spirit of the holidays. At a holiday time when everyone is in a giving mood, the film shows how painful it is to long in the mundane holiday fixtures. As faint touches on the shoulder turn into everything, Carol is a gorgeous vision of love and how its two stars whittle the most intimate details out of each other.
1 Die Hard
Is it a Christmas movie? Is it not? While Bruce Willis dispelled his feeling about the question, not too long ago, Die Hard remains one of the greatest action films ever made and one set adjacent to the afterglow of the holiday spirit. With its ingenious set-up, stuck in a giant plaza with European terrorists as Alan Rickman chews the scenery as Hans Gruber, Willis’ characterization as the boozy cop was the perfect alchemy to set the screen ablaze. As McClaine attempts to reconnect with his estranged wife, Los Angeles gets turned into a battle zone. What else can be said about a film whose legacy endures every year that passes, Die Hard is one of the greats.